Betty Comden
Betty Comden (May 3, 1917 – November 23, 2006) was an American lyricist, playwright, and screenwriter who contributed to numerous Hollywood musicals and Broadway shows of the mid-20th century. Her writing partnership with Adolph Green spanned six decades: "the longest running creative partnership in theatre history."[1] The musical-comedy duo of Comden and Green collaborated most notably with composers Jule Styne and Leonard Bernstein, as well enjoyed success with Singin' in the Rain, as part of the famed "Freed unit" at MGM.
Betty Comden
November 23, 2006 (aged 89)
Actress, librettist, lyricist, screenwriter
1944–2005
2
Early life[edit]
Betty Comden was born Basya Cohen[2] in Brooklyn, New York in 1917,[3] the younger child of Leo Cohen (originally Astershinsky), a lawyer, and Rebecca (née Sadvoransky) Cohen, an English teacher.[4] Both were Russian immigrants and observant Jews. She had an older brother, Nathaniel ("Nat"), born c. 1915.[5] Basya "attended Erasmus Hall High School and studied drama at New York University, graduating in 1938," according to The New York Times.[6]
In 1938, mutual friends introduced her to Adolph Green, an aspiring actor. Along with the young Judy Holliday and Leonard Bernstein, Comden and Green formed a troupe called the Revuers, which performed at the Village Vanguard, a club in Greenwich Village.[7] Due to the act's success, the Revuers appeared in the 1944 film Greenwich Village,[8][9] but their roles were so small they were barely noticed, and they returned to New York.
Comden and Green's first Broadway show was in 1944, with On the Town, a musical about three sailors on leave in New York City that was an expansion of a ballet entitled Fancy Free on which Bernstein had been working with choreographer Jerome Robbins. Comden and Green wrote the book and lyrics, which included sizable parts for themselves (as "Claire" and "Ozzie"). Their next musical, Billion Dollar Baby in 1945, with music by Morton Gould was not a success, and their 1947 show Bonanza Bound closed out-of-town and never reached Broadway.[7][10]
Family[edit]
Comden and Green were a creative partnership, not a romantic couple. In 1942, Comden married Siegfried Schutzman, a designer and businessman, who changed his name to Steven Kyle. He died in 1979 of acute pancreatitis. They had two children, a daughter, Susanna, and a son, Alan, who died in 1990.[20] [21][22] [23] She never remarried.[6]
Death[edit]
Betty Comden died of heart failure following an undisclosed illness of several months at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan on Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 2006, aged 89.[6][24] She was buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Glendale, New York.[25]